By Aaron Knishkowy, CCAN’s D.C. Summer Intern

Have you seen any headlines about the D.C. budget lately? You might have heard that different federal aid programs like Medicaid and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) were facing cuts. Although it didn’t dominate the headlines in the same way, critical funding for clean energy and environmental protection was also on the chopping block. This summer, CCAN Action Fund’s work focused on protecting as much of this funding as possible through grassroots organizing, advocacy, and direct action. Here’s how this year’s budget unfolded, and what it means for D.C.’s fight against climate change!   

How is the budget created? 

First, the Mayor works with agencies like the Department of Energy and the Environment (DOEE) to create a budget proposal. The Mayor generally releases her budget, along with the Budget Support Act (BSA), in March or early April. The BSA is a piece of legislation that makes necessary changes to D.C. laws to make sure the budget is workable. 

Next, the D.C. Council holds two types of hearings: government hearings, where Councilmembers question department heads to better understand the implications of the Mayor’s proposed budget, and public hearings, where D.C. residents and advocates share their opinions on the budget. Each committee then gets to revise (“mark-up”) its portions of the budget, and then the Council finalizes the budget and sends it to the Mayor for their signature. Like any law passed in the District, the budget then needs Congressional review before it is made official. 

What happened this year?

This year, the process started poorly after a Congressional spending bill in March slashed D.C.’s spending capabilities by over $1 billion, forcing cuts across the board. And remember how Mayor Bowser was supposed to present her budget and BSA by early April? It didn’t come out until the end of May! 

When the dust finally settled, the results were horrifying, with damaging cuts to programs that support working families and residents across the District. DOEE, which oversees our clean energy and environmental protection programs, faced a 24% cut, the steepest of any agency. Mayor Bowser’s most egregious offense was her now-annual tradition of raiding the Sustainable Energy Trust Fund (SETF), a pot of special-use funds that helps D.C. residents pay their power bills and move their homes off of methane gas. This year, Mayor Bowser’s proposal stole over $70 million from the SETF! You can read more about the SETF and why it’s so important here. 

To make matters worse, the accompanying BSA weakened other climate commitments. Mayor Bowser walked back her promise to provide no-cost home electrification upgrades to 30,000 D.C. homes, delayed the implementation of the Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS), and altered the City’s commitment to net zero buildings. 

Our Demands

CCAN Action Fund and our partners quickly formulated an advocacy strategy to:

1. Restore as much SETF money as possible
2. Save BEPS and the net-zero building requirements

It was going to be an uphill battle. But we’re part of a strong coalition of environmental advocates, these programs have significant grassroots support, and we have a few key allies on the D.C. Council who we trust to go to bat for these programs. 

My Budget Advocacy Timeline

The Mayor’s delayed budget was released on the second day of my internship, offering me a front row seat to see how CCAN Action Fund and our allies could quickly tap into grassroots support and translate the outrage into action. On June 13th, more than 130 people flocked to testify at the DOEE hearing. The first two witnesses were former Councilmembers Mary Cheh and Tommy Wells, who were both fierce climate champions during their long careers in public service. Cheh called Mayor Bowser’s budget a “broken promise to the District,” while Wells said that the budget proposal “[severed] the trust of our residents at every income level.” 

Later on, Chris Weiss, a longtime D.C. environmental advocate, said that “Donald Trump would be proud of the Mayor” for dismantling environmental efforts. Claire Mills, CCAN and CCAN AF’s D.C. Campaigns Manager, also testified, highlighting the heightened importance of SETF money due to Pepco’s recent rate hike. 

Our advocacy intensified with a rally and “Green Budget Day of Action,” as CCAN AF and other organizations met face-to-face with Councilmembers. The energy was high as activists filled the Wilson Building’s halls. This was my first-ever Wilson Building Lobby Day, and seeing the building filled with activists dressed in green was quite uplifting.

After intense lobbying, the Council’s Transportation and Environment Committee managed to restore $3.1 million for the Healthy Homes program—a good start, but not enough.  The full Council then heard from even more witnesses, and their offices received countless calls and emails asking for SETF money to be restored and for BEPS and the net-zero building requirements to be protected. 

The Results

Following weeks of advocacy, the final version of the budget and the BSA restored approximately $15 million to clean energy and environmental programs, and BEPS and net zero building requirements were left intact. This wasn’t the victory we hoped for, but our advocacy certainly moved the needle and limited damage. 

What’s Next and How You Can Help!

Programs like the Healthy Homes Act are absolutely critical if D.C. is to reach its climate goals. As long as we have a Mayor who is content to kick the can down the road on climate, we’ll be spending each spring and summer fighting to fund the climate progress that we’ve made over the last several years.

That’s why we support a dedicated pool of funds to protect residents from the impacts of climate change and the ballooning cost of extreme weather. We demand that fossil fuel companies pay for the costs that their pollution creates. Our aging infrastructure and housing were not built for today’s extreme weather – flash flooding and oppressive heat have become near-weekly occurrences! And it isn’t cheap.

Taxpayers shouldn’t be footing the bill for every climate-fueled storm or outage. Stand with us and sign our petition to hold polluters accountable!